Canadian students: How did you enter your credits on OptomCAS?

[knioette]

Hi everyone,

Canadian universities only grant 3 credits per course per semester, no matter whether it included a lab or not. Now some Optometry schools require '4' or '8' credits minimum for some pre-reqs, but that's because in the US a course with a lab is 4, not 3, credits.

Should I enter 4 credits for courses with labs, even though it only says 3 on my transcript, or will the Optometry schools understand that the Canadian 3 credit course may include a lab, and would therefore be equivalent to an American 4 credit course? How did you do it?

I asked OptomCAS about this a couple of times, every time they just refer to the FAQ, and this questions isn't answered there


Thanks!
Knioette

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[skyy001]

Enter as they appear on your transcript, if a course is 3 credits, then enter 3 credits.

 

[knioette]

So if a school requires a minimum 4 credits, will that mean that they will consider my 3 credit course insufficient, or will they understand that it's equivalent to the 4 credit course?

 

[skyy001]

I think OptomCAS will standardize these credits. Also, if you look at the requirements of different optometry schools, not all of them say that they require a specific credit (e.g. SUNY just requires you to have 1-2 semesters/1 or 3 quarters for a particular course).

 

[knioette]

Thanks skyy, it's just that quite a few of my first choice schools do specify this 4 credit requirement (or 8 for 2 courses with labs), and there is no way to specify on OptomCAS whether a class included a lab or not, and it doesn't show on my transcript. In fact, I had to go to my school's course catalog to confirm which classes had labs. The only way to represent classes with labs on OptomCAS and to the school is to specifically select the course as a required course with lab, and that is it.

 

[knioette]

In case anyone wonders the same thing: Skyy is right, I just called OptomCAS and NOVA (They require the 4/8 credits for pre-reqs), and they told me they're familiar with the Canadian system and don't require 4/8 credits for courses with labs from Canadian students. They told me to simply put everything in exactly as the transcript has.

 

[Aristen]

In case anyone wonders the same thing: Skyy is right, I just called OptomCAS and NOVA (They require the 4/8 credits for pre-reqs), and they told me they're familiar with the Canadian system and don't require 4/8 credits for courses with labs from Canadian students. They told me to simply put everything in exactly as the transcript has.

Thanks for clarifying! I'm a Canadian student too. I'm not applying until next year but I've been wondering about this. I'm glad they're familiar with the Canadian system. I must say that the way they do GPA frightens me a little. My average is 89% but by the way OptomCAS calculated GPA, my GPA is only 3.3, which seems rather low. Did you find your GPA went down on OptomCAS?

 

[knioette]

Oh my grades on my transcripts are all letter grades, so optomcas didn't convert anything for me. Although 3.3 for 89 is indeed pretty low.

 

[icedjanuary]

In case anyone wonders the same thing: Skyy is right, I just called OptomCAS and NOVA (They require the 4/8 credits for pre-reqs), and they told me they're familiar with the Canadian system and don't require 4/8 credits for courses with labs from Canadian students. They told me to simply put everything in exactly as the transcript has.

Ooh! My school had 0.5 credits/semester and I had just been entering them all as "4" . I wonder if that would be alright

 

[knioette]

I was told to enter my credits exactly as per my transcript, otherwise when they verify my transcript they'll find the discrepancies and delay processing until I fix it.

 

[icedjanuary]

I was told to enter my credits exactly as per my transcript, otherwise when they verify my transcript they'll find the discrepancies and delay processing until I fix it.

okie, thanks !!